Thinking about buying an X-fi fatality...

A

Ahriman4891

Gawd
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Jun 18, 2005
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OK, I apologize for making threads so often lately :) but newegg has a rebate for X-Fi Fatality (good 'till Nov. 29, so I'm not late this time) which brings the final price to $133. (They also have a rebate for Xtrememusic, bringing it to $73, BTW).

I toyed with the idea of getting an Elite Pro, but decided that for the same or slightly larger $$, I can get a cheaper x-fi family card + a dedicated stereo card. Primary reasons to go this way are better resulting SQ and Linux compatibility. I also plan to get a headphone amp at some point, but the x-fi front panel could do in the meantime. Since I was prepared to pay around $100 for Xtrememusic, 130 for Fatality doesn't seem like a bad deal. I'm primarily getting this for headphone convenience, so a couple of questions:

How is the headphone jack on the front bay? Any hissing?

Is it possible to control headphone volume independently? That is, mute the front panel and still have sound coming out of rear jacks for the speakers? If yes, is it a software or hardware-based independence?

If the headphone jack is bad, or if I cannot listen to speakers without unplugging the 'phones (don't feel like having them running in vain), I'd rather save 50 bucks and go for Xtrememusic.

Thanks!
 
you have indipendant muting of rear speakers or not when using headphones. Also, the front output sounds good, i have some ATH-A900's coming on wednesday, some Senn HD515 atm. Sounds good :p

The Fatality has the Xram that the XtremeMusic doesnt have, and the front bay. So its got more. Althout the Xram seems to have very little support. Im considering upgrading to the Elite Pro and then not getting a DAC for the cans.
 
^ So the front panel volume knob is only related to headphones?

Nice choice with A900s, I think you'll enjoy them a lot :)
 
Ahriman4891 said:
Oh well, I bought it. Will post impressions when it arrives.
Click to expand...

lol "oh well"

seriously i think that card/setup looks good. mainly because i do audio recording and stuff, that drive bay thingey looks...awesome, given that you have, say, a Shure SM57... then youre set.
 
I actually read people complaining about delay on the inputs that make it unusable for music creation. I don't really plan to use the inputs, but will test them with my brother's guitar nevertheless.
 
i got my A900's. Although they sound nice they are wired wrong lol. Left and right are oposite way round. I know its not the source at fault... Plus, they feel really odd for VOIP stuff, i cant hear myself taking properly. Gonna get a credit on them and try some HD595's, I think they will be more to my liking due to my HD515's atm :)
 
Wow that's weird. Maybe it's just the stickers on the joints that are placed wrong? The joint above the earcup slightly protrudes forward. I.e. if you were wearing these you would be facing right.
 
OK, so I just put it in. Installed latest creative drivers from their website, did not install any "bloatware" as people refer to it yet. Everything worked immediately, including kernel streaming in Foobar2k. No cracking/popping.

I don't want to comment on the sound too much at this point. First, it's too late and I'm tired. Second, there is the "creative cards suck for music" stereotype and I don't want to subconsciously look for/make up little faults in the sound to conform to it. I'll let my ears adjust for a week or so. One thing I can say immediately is that highs seem more pronounced, and in general fatality gives a somewhat "colder" sound than my rockboxed nano or my receiver when fed by AV-710. I took AV-710 out at the moment so I can't ABX, but the changes are not huge, maybe I'm jst imagining things. :)

BTW, I cannot hear any noise from the headphones connected to the front panel even at max volume (I have Audio-Technica A900 LTD, pretty revealing and sensitive cans). So I now have my 1st dedicated headphone amp, and it's a "clean" one :) (previously used them out of receiver and enjoyed constant (quiet) level of hiss no matter what volume).

More impressions to come when my ears fully "burn-in".
 
Ahriman4891 said:
Wow that's weird. Maybe it's just the stickers on the joints that are placed wrong? The joint above the earcup slightly protrudes forward. I.e. if you were wearing these you would be facing right.
Click to expand...

with the cord leaving on the left side the audio was off. With the chord on the right side it was fine if a little uncomfortable. I spoke to the HBL rep, he is asking AT directly about whats going on.
 
Right. The cord should be on the left. You can try switching the earpads in the meantime to fix the comfort issue, but your pair definitely has a problem. Good luck with exchanging/returning.
 
Ahriman4891 said:
Right. The cord should be on the left. You can try switching the earpads in the meantime to fix the comfort issue, but your pair definitely has a problem. Good luck with exchanging/returning.
Click to expand...

i know they should be on the left. and i know they have a problem.

i got them through the HBL rep, they are a AT dealer in northen england. I think they came from AT Japan > UK > HBL. And then to our shop (we use AT PA equipment).

The headphones are not meant to be worn the "wrong" (which in my case is correct) so that explains the comfort factor

i also cannot play my guitar with them on. the cord keeps catching on my arm.

With a bit of luck i will just send them back and then no invoice will be sent. If that is the case i will get some HD595's most likely through Scan, as i have a friend who works there as well. :) It helps to have people who can get stuff

Back on topic!

the fatality is adiquate for music playback. its certainly up to the task of FLAC anyway, to get any better i would imagine a seperate DAC, then an amp then cans. I wonder how much better it can be with 16 bit 44.1Khz recordings. I imagine a dedicated system would own it on DVD audio though :)

Gaming is awesome, COD2 and FEAR are good examples i feel, as well as BF2 and 2142 :)
 
Ahriman4891 said:
OK, so I just put it in. Installed latest creative drivers from their website, did not install any "bloatware" as people refer to it yet. Everything worked immediately, including kernel streaming in Foobar2k. No cracking/popping.

I don't want to comment on the sound too much at this point. First, it's too late and I'm tired. Second, there is the "creative cards suck for music" stereotype and I don't want to subconsciously look for/make up little faults in the sound to conform to it. I'll let my ears adjust for a week or so. One thing I can say immediately is that highs seem more pronounced, and in general fatality gives a somewhat "colder" sound than my rockboxed nano or my receiver when fed by AV-710. I took AV-710 out at the moment so I can't ABX, but the changes are not huge, maybe I'm jst imagining things. :)

BTW, I cannot hear any noise from the headphones connected to the front panel even at max volume (I have Audio-Technica A900 LTD, pretty revealing and sensitive cans). So I now have my 1st dedicated headphone amp, and it's a "clean" one :) (previously used them out of receiver and enjoyed constant (quiet) level of hiss no matter what volume).

More impressions to come when my ears fully "burn-in".
Click to expand...


Have you installed the drive bay front panel thingey? Im curious to know how it hooks up to the system... Is is IDE?? SATA? USB?? Firewire? Through the XFI card itself?

Im gonna post a new thread... seems like a different topic.
 
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